On July 11, the village began preparing for the clan celebration.
The first event of the celebration was the Clan Sacrifice. The Chen Clan honored its ancestors during the Ghost Festival, also known as the "Seventh Month's Half."
By then, the height of summer had passed, and autumn's coolness had just begun. The Chen Clan believed their ancestors would return at this time to visit their descendants, so ancestral offerings were necessary.
The Chen Clan's ancestral ceremonies came in three sizes: small, medium, and large.
Every five years, in years ending in 1 or 6 of the Douluo Calendar, they held a collective ceremony to honor the clan's ancestors at ancestral halls, temples, or ancestral graves. Most clan members living elsewhere would return, and sometimes friends and relatives would attend as spectators. This was the Clan Sacrifice.
Every five years, in years ending in 1 or 6 of the Douluo Calendar, they held a collective ceremony to honor the clan's ancestors at ancestral halls, temples, or ancestral graves. Most clan members living elsewhere would return, and sometimes friends and relatives would attend as spectators. This was the clan ceremony.
Every twenty years, under the leadership of the Chen Clan's main lineage, representatives of the various branches bearing the Chen surname would travel from all across the continent. The Chen Clan also invited its allied families far and wide, gathering martial souls together for the grand occasion. This was called the soul ceremony.
This time it was the Clan Sacrifice, and the clan members were gradually returning.
This time, it was a clan ceremony, and clan members were returning one after another.
The sacrificial rites included offering incense, reading invocations, presenting rice and broth, serving tea, offering silk, wine, boxes of food, and sacrificial meat, reciting blessings, and bidding the ancestors